Finding Vivian Maier

[sjankis630]

Ok I am back with my artsy fartsy documentary review. I just went to see this one last Friday and was generally positive about it.
The documentary is called Finding Vivian Maier and it is about a photographer who buys a chest of old photos and negatives at an auction. He inspects them and finds out that they are very numerous and very good and they belonged to Vivian Maier.
Vivian was a former nanny/governess who while in the employ of various families took 1000s of street photos during the 40s-70s and for whatever reason printed very few.
Once the photographer had revealed them to the general public they were seen for the brilliance that they possessed.
Unfortunately we never really find out much about Vivian except from the families who agreed to be interviewed but what we do find out is both fascinating and at the same time frustrating/mysterious.
She never married, was intensely private (even when in the employ of the families) and died in obscurity.
This is a nice documentary about a forgotten/never discovered genius who nonetheless got her work displayed.

[garnet927]

I'm curious about this movie, since I'm a Chicago-area resident, and The Chicago Tribune has done at least a couple of stories both about her and the documentary--I, like many I suspect, had never heard of her prior to that.

[chonies]

I listened to a great podcast (maybe Fresh Air?) about this, and I think the central premise sounds interesting--a photographer no one had ever heard of dies, and then people wonder if her art was good enough on its own, and also how the mystery of the fortuitous find affects perception of her work. I've been reading about her story since it seeped out, and while I find it fascinating, there's a not-insubstantial part of me that still suspects a hoax of some kind.